


Dumbledore Guy

by dameofpowellestate



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tattoos, emma says all the bad words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 08:09:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10849941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dameofpowellestate/pseuds/dameofpowellestate
Summary: When Emma was born she was marked with, in her opinion, the worst soulmate mark anyone could ever have. People are born marked with the first words their true love would ever say to them, and Emma's happened to spoil one of the greatest plot twists of all time.





	Dumbledore Guy

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt I found on pinterest. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please see the notes at the bottom.

Emma Swan was twenty-eight years old and had yet to meet her soulmate. She may be the only person in the world to be thankful, but when you have a life altering spoiler tattooed in lovely delicate script across your shoulder blade all your life, you tend to be a little resentful.

She was no different than any other poor sap on Earth; born with a tattoo revealing the first words her soulmate would speak to her. However, in her opinion it was by far the shittiest, most embarrassing soulmate marking she’d ever heard of and she didn’t even know what it meant until 1998 at the age of ten.

***

Growing up in a group home was hard, to say the least. It was very rare for kids in the system to receive any special attention at all, even rarer to receive nice and new things. Especially books that had all their pages and didn’t smell of mildew, but the year Emma turned ten, they did. A very generous donor gave a box full of new books, and Emma, always ready to escape the world around her grabbed the biggest book she could get her hands on.

Little did she know as she curled up on her top bunk in a room she shared with three other girls, she’d find the inspiration behind her tattoo within the first chapter of the book she’d grabbed.

Suddenly the words, “Man, I can’t believe Dumbledore died,” made a whole lot more sense. She’d spent quite a few years worried about this Dumbledore guy, so she did feel a bit relieved when she found out he was a fictional character.

***

Even though Emma grew up keeping her mark as much of a secret as possible, for fear of spoiling it for someone else, and even though she was carrying around this huge spoiler literally on her shoulders, she couldn’t help but fall in love with the books. She’d wished, and hoped, and prayed for a Hogwarts instead of a new foster home, a Hagrid instead of a new foster parent, and a Dumbledore instead of a new case worker.

However, no matter how much she loved the books, as each new book came out she despised her soulmate more and more. With the release of each book she fell more in love with every character and the fact she knew one of those characters wasn’t going to make it was terrifying, because she never knew when it was coming.

***

When Emma was sixteen and had long since given up on finding a family, she was finally given a break. She’d only been back in the system for three months after running away with a guy whose first words to her were, “hey baby, got a light,” when the Nolan’s came to visit.

The Nolan’s, probably the loveliest couple anyone had ever seen, took one look at Emma with her golden haired head buried in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and they were sold.

“Man, I can’t believe you like Harry Potter too!” had been David Nolan’s first words to Emma. He’d plopped down on the couch right next to her, while his wife sat down gracefully on his other side.

“Yes, David and I just finished it a few days ago. It may be the best one yet,” Mary Margaret added.

Emma, though hesitant, was a little bit sold on the two of them as well. Their words so close to those inked on her shoulder, their kind loving faces already smiling at her. She’d never had anyone look at her the way these two had.

“Just don’t spoil anything yet… I haven’t finished yet,” she responded quietly.

***

The first time Emma shared her mark with the Nolans was nearly a year later. They’d all decided to read the newest book, Half Blood Prince, together. They would end their evenings in the living room and would normally take turns reading, though Emma liked it when David read best. He’d make faces and change his voice and even though Emma was seventeen, it was something she’d missed out on as a kid and she couldn’t help but love it.

To say the Nolan’s were surprised when Emma’s response to Dumbledore’s death was, “Oh thank God, finally!” would be an understatement.

“Emma! What do you mean finally? Have you been reading without us?” Mary Margaret asked, the look on her face more amused than anything else.

“No! I mean, I’ve kinda known about it my whole life,” she said cautiously. As she stood, she took a deep breath before pulling her left arm out of her sleeve.

“As you can see, I’m destined to be with an asshole.”

“Emma, I think that’s amazing!” Mary Margaret squealed, temporarily forgetting to correct her language.

“Amazing? How in the hell is this amazing? I’ve carried around one of the biggest literary surprises of my generation on my shoulder! This guy ruined one of the biggest plot twists of my favorite book series. My soulmate is the worst!” She spat, fixing her shirt before plopping back down on the couch.

“Oh Ems, think about it. You already know he likes something you like! He didn’t spoil it before you got a chance to read it yourself, well he didn’t spoil it in person. Poor guy, he doesn’t know what he’s done! You can’t help who you love and you can’t help what their first words to you are,” David said as he moved to put the book away for the evening, dropping a kiss on Emma’s head as he passed.

***

With Dumbledore’s death came expectancy. Try as she might, there was a big part of Emma; the part that wasn’t angry, that now hoped her soulmate would be right around the corner. Surely, if she had to wait for some loser that had only ever seen the movies then she really wasn’t going to like him.

However, teenage Emma suddenly became grown up Emma. The final book came out when she was nineteen, the last movie when she was twenty-three and still no soulmate.

On Emma’s twenty-fifth birthday she added her first voluntary tattoo to the inside of her right wrist, one word. This word meant that while the books were finished and the movies were done and that while she’d probably missed her soulmate in the midst of all of it, that she would _always_ remember.   

***  

“Have you met anyone special recently?” Mary Margaret asked as she placed a warm plate of cookies and a steaming mug of hot cocoa in front of her daughter.

“If you mean Dumbledore guy, the answer is still no,” Emma groaned, as she scooped up some whipped cream with her finger.

“Well, what about someone else? You don’t have to be alone. I saw men before I met your father.”

“Oh gross. I don’t want to picture you with anyone other than Dad,” Emma said with her nose scrunched up. “There aren’t exactly people lining up to have meaningful relationships with someone that's not their soulmate. So, one night stands are about as far as I ever go.”

“Oh! Please warn a man before you have these kinds of conversations! I don't need to be hearing this about my little girl!” David said from the front door.

“Oh hush you! She's a grown woman David.” Mary Margaret said getting up to take David a cookie and give him a kiss on the cheek.

“I mean, I'm twenty-eight years old! If I haven't met him by now, then I'm not going to and that's fine! I still think he's probably an ass and I have my job and I'll just go buy some cats and get a head start on the rest of my life.” Emma responded dryly.

“Plenty of people meet their soul mates later in life.” David reminded softly.

“Yeah, except my mark is about a book series that ended years ago. If it mentioned prune juice or how much retirement I've accrued then maybe I'd feel differently,” she said before stuffing an entire cookie in her mouth, ending the conversation.

***

Emma never made a habit of reading Half-Blood Prince in public, it always felt like she was pushing fate. Not that she believed in fate, because she absolutely didn't. Fate couldn't exist in a world where you're born with a tattoo on your shoulder telling you who you're supposed to love. So, Emma Swan didn't read Half-Blood Prince in public, except the time she did.

She was in the middle of one of her many rereads of the Harry Potter books. She was just past the halfway mark in Half-Blood Prince when the electricity in her loft went out. That's how Emma found herself tucked away in the corner of a very busy coffee shop, breaking her one rule.

As she read chapter twenty-seven, the chapter that gave her the mark on her shoulder, she had to wonder if the reason she'd hung on to Harry Potter so tightly was because of Dumbledore Guy. Sure, Harry’s life was some twisted and much more magical version of her own. He'd been her only friend when she'd had none, her only family until the Nolans, but maybe it was more than that.

Maybe she loved Harry Potter because she knew one day it would lead her to her own family, her true family, her missing half. It brought her to the Nolans after she’d given up on ever belonging somewhere, why couldn't it do the same for her again?

“And maybe I'm becoming too sentimental in my spinsterhood,” she mumbled bitterly as she turned the page.

“Man, I can't believe Dumbledore died.”

In that moment Emma’s world stopped. She didn't hear the chatter of people around her. She didn't hear the coffee machines whirring across the room. The only thing she could hear was her heart beating rapidly. This was it, this is the man. Dumbledore guy.

Her eyes slowly left the pages of the now forgotten Harry Potter book to scan over the man that leaned lazily with one hand on her table. Dressed in black slacks with a white button down rolled to his elbows. She could make out the last few letters of a tattoo that seemed to be written down the inside of his forearm. His eyes as blue as the ocean and his hair looked like it’d been in a windstorm instead of a quaint coffee shop.

“ _Oh_. You’ve got to be shitting me,” she nearly growled, her eyes still wide with shock.

Emma watched as realization hit him. She knew it's him but he didn’t. Not until she said her first words. Her first words that had contained a _curse word_. She watched his eyes widen and a blush flush his face, just visible under his well maintained scruff. Emma gasped and let her head fall into her hands.

“Ah, so we finally meet,” Dumbledore guy chuckled, his laugh only making Emma blush more.

“You've had, _you've got to be shitting me_ , tattooed on your body your whole life? That may be worse than mine,” she groaned, finally looking back up at him.

“Well, I'm guessing I spoiled one of J.K’s best kept secrets. My apologies, love. I will say, I've always been quite fond of your colorful vocabulary. My mother on the other hand, not so much. Though, no one was really surprised that would be a lass’s first words to me.”

“So you're a troublemaker then?” she said, her voice more flirtatious than she intended, almost as if she couldn’t help herself.

“I prefer dashing rapscallion,” he grumbled with wink.

Emma just stared at him dumbfounded for a minute, not believing this guy was real. “Wait… How did you know I'd even read these books! You could have totally ruined this secret for me on purpose!”

“Two things,” he said slinging his bag off his shoulder on to the table and took a seat, “you read that book like I read that book. Like nothing else matters, like all your worries are gone.” He spoke assuredly as he pulled a well loved Prisoner of Azkaban out of his satchel. “And I saw your tattoo,” he said taking her hand in his and turning her wrist upward, revealing the one word written in delicate script, “really didn't think you were my soulmate.”

Emma’s reaction time was slower than usual but she quickly jerked her hand out of his hold.

“Not that I'm not pleased! Erm, that is you’re very lovely. Not that I wouldn't… Oh this is a lot harder than I'd imagined,” he said, as his hand ran nervously through his hair.

“Have you… Have you thought about this? Me?”

“Bloody hell woman, of course I have. Almost given up at this point if I'm being honest.”

“Yeah, me too. Especially when, you know… Harry Potter’s been gone for so long now I didn't… I figured I'd missed you.”

“That's why I came over. I um, I’m a sucker for girls that like Harry Potter. Especially girls named…” He said, a cheeky grin on his face.

“Very smooth. My name is Emma Swan. I'm twenty-eight years old and I'm terrible at this.”

“I'm Killian Jones, I'm thirty and I happen to be wonderful at this. Now, would you like to get married now or would you like me to take you on a few dates first?”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this for an embarrassingly long amount of time and was super nervous to post it. If there's enough interest I may add another chapter in Killian's point of view and maybe a little more about what happens after. So, Please leave comments and kudos if you'd like!


End file.
